Prizefight: Apple iPhone 5S vs. Samsung Galaxy S4

Prizefight: Apple iPhone 5S vs. Samsung Galaxy S4

6:34 /
November 26, 2013

It's a battle between two of the baddest smartphones on planet earth. Does Apple's latest iPhone bring enough to the table to take down the Samsung Galaxy S4 this time around?

What's up Prizefight fans?
I'm Brian Tong and the Smartphone wars will never go away.
So, we're facing off the best of the best.
It's a Prizefight put you between Apple's iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S4.
Our judges for this fight are senior editor Jessica "The People's" Dolcourt, associate editor Lynn "Woo La" La, and myself "Can't Go Wrong" Tong.
Let's take all three judges' scores and average them out to the nearest 10 each round.
The final Prizefight score will be an average of all rounds in the same system.
Let's get started round 1. These two phones are the top of their class and Apple still brings more the best design phones even if it has a smaller phone screen with the 326 pixel per inch count.
For some people, it's the perfect size.
For others, it's not.
And all the hype about the Gold iPhone in person, it's really not as gold as they make you look in pictures.
Now, the Galaxy S4 may not bring us premium
over design with its plastic packing, but it feels solid in your hand and the one thing we can't ignore, its 5-inch AMOLED display with a higher 441 pixel per inch count.
This thing is the truth, but it also might be too big for some people.
It's a battle between screen size and design and our judges are calling this a tie at 4.3 points apiece.
Next round is console user interface.
Apple brings iOS 7 with the Visual FaceLift, but the same staple functionality that has made
the easiest mobile OST use.
Now if you're looking for the deep customization, you won't really find it here.
My control center is really the biggest change that plays catch-up to Android and it's the most useful for Apple loyalist.
Now Touch ID brings fingerprint recognition that's optional and it may take an extra second, but it's a lot better than punching in a pass code every time and it's the best fingerprint execution we've seen so far.
The Galaxy S4 brings a snappy TouchWiz interface, but running on top of Android 4.3 that's still rolling out.
It looks a lot like previous versions except there's even
more UI bells and whistles tucked in here.
Pull down the notifications bar and you'll see everything and I mean everything for multi window use the Samsung's Smart Eye features that are more gimmicky.
Now, you can navigate the phone by touch or with gestures.
We don't think the interface is bad.
UI is still just as customizable, but it's just not as clean.
Now, there's just so much more you can do here and today's user demands more so the Galaxy S4 gets a 4.7 and the iPhone 5S gets a 4.3.
Now for averaging two rounds, the Galaxy S4 leads.
Next round is fit.
Apple's iPhone 5S brings the dual-core A7 processor and its biggest new feature, Touch ID, is a fingerprint sensor done right, but it has so much more potential that needs to be unlocked.
There's also an M7 processor for fitness apps, but that really isn't a game changer.
Serious better, but still behind Google Voice and Apple maps are better, but they're still behind Google maps.
Just like the name implies, the 5S is an improvement
from the 5, but not a groundbreaking device.
On the other hand, Samsung's Galaxy S4 is jam-packed with features with its 1.9 gigahertz quad-core processor.
So, I tell you some of the unique things that can do even if you won't use them all.
It has replaceable battery and memory expansion.
You won't find that on the iPhone 5S.
It brings multi window support, run two apps at the same time, motion gestures or zooming in some pictures or scrolling up and down the web page with your eyes or looking at pictures with the wave of a hand like a box.
Now, watch your video, turn away, and the video clip will stop until your eyes return to the screen.
It also has S Voice Drive to keep your eyes on the road and it can even be used as a fitness device.
It also brings the WatchON app to act as your TV remote.
And that's still not everything.
Can you guess who takes this round?
The Galaxy S4 gets a 4.7 and the iPhone 5S gets a 4. Next round is web browsing multimedia.
Web browsing on mobile phones is pretty much a push
when you can load chrome on both phones as the best mobile browser out there.
The Galaxy S4 really stands out though with its enormous display that may not always be as bright as other phones on its high setting of web content and videos just look amazing on it compared to the iPhone 5S's 4-inch screen.
iTunes Radio is also one of the sleeper features that has been a great and I mean a great multimedia add-on that a lot of iOS users are asking Pandora who?
And when it comes to photos, the iPhone 5S's 8-megapixel camera
tends to take photos that are little sharper and more saturated compared to the S4's 14-megapixel camera.
Low light shots perform better with the iPhone 5S and its dual color LED flash made a difference when compared to the Galaxy
S4's, and both phones have slow-mo video which is always fun.
Overall, our judges preferred the 5S's camera over the S4's that was still very good, but we're gonna give the slight edge the S4 overall with its larger screen.
The Galaxy takes round four with the 4.7 and the iPhone 5S gets a 4.3.
Well, after averaging four rounds, the Galaxy S4 still leads.
The final round that decides both is performance.
Both phones call quality will depend on your carrier and area and in our test, they were both very capable.
Now both operating systems were snappy to use, but iOS 7 animations do tend to make the OS skills slower at times.
Now in CNET's own video battery drain test, the iPhone 5S was able to squeeze out 11 hours of battery life compared to the Galaxy S4,
which squeezed out 10 hours and 20 minutes of use.
And that reality is that a larger screen means less battery.
Now in the Geekbench 3 benchmark test, the iPhone 5S clearly dominated the Galaxy S4 as well, but the reality is that both of these phones feel fast and snappy in real world test.
Now performance matters and the judges are giving the iPhone 5S a perfect 5 and the Galaxy S4 gets a 4.3.
So, let's average out all five rounds and Samsung really put the pressure on early and often,
and even a perfect 5 in the last round just wasn't enough for the iPhone 5S and the Galaxy S4 takes this battle 4.5 to 4.4 and is your Prizefight winner.
It was another epic battle, but in the end these are two cream of the crop phones and the final decision always comes down to you.
I'm Brian Tong.
Thanks for watching.
We'll catch you guys next time for another Prizefight.
Cool.